The school was founded by John Aitkenhead (1910-1998) [1][2] and his wife Morag in 1940. It was closed in 1997. It was located near Castle Douglas in Dumfries and Galloway. The school is in the process of reopening under head teacher and former pupil Andrew Pyle, with the support of a Japanese educational organisation Kinokuni Children's Village Schools (headed by Shinichiro Hori) which now owns the premises. The first intake of 12 pupils is expected in 2013. A previous attempt to reopen in 2009 failed to attract a financially viable number of pupils.

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The philosophy of Kilquhanity was heavily influenced by the writing and ideas of A. S. Neill, who founded Summerhill School, where Aitkenhead had worked;[1] essentially that children learn best with freedom from coercion ("free-range").